A register of experiments anatomical, physiological, and pathological performed on living animals

OF THE

-School o/iAedicine

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in 2013

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REGISTER OF EXPERIMENTS

ANATOMICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND PATHOLOGICAL,

PERFORMED ON

LIVING ANIMALS

BY

JAMES TURNER,

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS;

fAUTHOK OF 'A TREATISE CPON THE FOOT OF THE HOESE.'

Reprinted, and embodying in a single Memoir, Parts /, II, and III, published
in 1839, 1843, and J 847 respectively.

LONDON :

A^'^°

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

1858.

"^^

OPqi

PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

PREFACE.

The Author^ in now pubKshing the three following Parts,
embodied in one memoir, thinks he cannot do better than
refer his readers to the able review in the ' Veterinarian/ for
July, 1857, from which he has made the following extracts :

" A brief comment on the remarkable example of the value of
experimental investigations, furnished by the three Memoirs of ^Mr.
James Turner, President of the Royal College of Veterinary Sur-
geons, whose spirit of penetration appears to have anticipated by
ten years tlie remarkable discoveiy of Di'. Richardson, as to the
cause of the blood's coagulation, to which the last Astley Cooper

Prize of three hundred guineas has been awarded

And in other parts of his memoirs

om' author insists upon a gaseous current as constant and retained
within the blood-vessels ; he maintains that rarefied air is the
solvent of the blood, and that it is only when such gas finds escape
that the liquid blood becomes coagulated. Now, if the scientific
world confirm Dr. Richardson's discovery, it cannot be denied that
Mr. Turner's opinion, pronounced as it was on the basis of experi-
ment, is one of the most remarkable examples on record of what can

be regarded as little else than scientific prophecy

Perusal of these memoirs will amply repay every real student of
nature, for they are rich in evidences of a master mind, in material
for reflection, which can but lead to the great end of scientific pro-
gress Mr. Turner may say with justice that had his

voice been sooner echoed, the prize of discovery would have been
sooner won."

"Mr. Turner, the respected President of the Royal College of
Veterinary Sm'geons, by a series of physical experiments, very much
resembling some of mine, but preceding those, came to the definite
conclusion that coagulation occurs from the escape of volatile matter
from blood.

"Mr. Turner's labours were independently conducted; and I
have sincere pleasm'e in claiming for him a successful and original
place in this interesting inquiry." — Dr. Richardson ' On the
Coagulation of the Blood.'

ADVERTISEMENT.

The few following pages contain the description
of an unique experiment as repeated upon the
blood-vessels of living animals ; together with re-
sults which consist of the development of some
new facts, so important and startling in the con-
templation of the phenomena of animal life, that,
in the humble opinion of the Author, they consti-
tute an entirely new field for inquiry, worthy the
research and scrutiny of the human physiolo-
gist, having the same reference to the structure
and economy of man as to inferior animals.

Sorse Infirmary^ 311, Regent Street,
London, Ajprily 1839.

'jNIYERSITY Q. MJR TLRIiD

1813

TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION,

An individual so obscure as the writer of
these pages soliciting the time and attention
(though merely a passing notice) of a body of
men constituting a scientific class of the com-
munity, justly acknowledged the most learn-
ed, the most wise, and at the same time the most
useful to mankind at large, is impressed with
a deep sense of the magnitude of his task, though
not deterred from the undertaking.

Notwithstanding the confidence expressed in
my advertisement, I feel that I cannot reasonably
expect to excite your attention and interest with-
out respectfully placing before you some of my
pretensions for having embarked in so bold a pro-
cedure ; but aware of the immense value of your
time, it behoves me to be brief.

1

6
I must premise, that I commenced active prac-
tice as veterinary surgeon in the British cavalry
when a youth of nineteen, and continued attached
to the same regiment until after the close of the
Peninsular war. My military appointment af-
forded me many years of valuable experience, and
being upon the home service, I also enjoyed very
extensive private practice. From thence to the
present hour my time has been wholly devoted to
the practical part of the veterinary profession,
fostered by an ardent lo.ve for it, and blessed with
undisturbed rude health throughout that length-
ened period. I have never been an absentee from
the pursuit for one whole week ; and all my in-
tervals of leisure have been devoted to theory
and experiment. My opportunities for experi-
ments have been so numerous and varied, that I
blush with shame at not having produced earlier
and better fruits. I have, however, availed myself
of some ; and if fortunate enough, through your
candour, to bring a tithe part- of them to a suc-
cessful issue, my ambition will be gratified, and I
shall not regret the labour I have bestowed ; and

7

more, that, whether successful or not in this
Essay, I shall persist in experimental inquiries, and
ere long again appeal to you for a second hearing.
The few brief remarks which I have to make
upon the veterinary profession generally I hope
you will tolerate, otherwise I fear of convincing
you that, as a body of men engaged in a pursuit
although inferior yet not dissimilar to your own,
we possess many facilities to aid us in prying into
some of the hidden secrets of Nature which are
denied to your own class.

It is well known that vetennary science has
flourished in this country, under the new and im-
proved system as emanated from the Royal Ve-
terinary College, for nearly the last half century.
Talented members of the profession have favoured
the public with elaborate works upon the ana-
tomy, physiology, and pathology of the horse,
which will ever reflect credit upon their authors
and the age in which they were written.

The veterinary art has recently been conde-
scendingly styled by the giants of human surgery
the ''sister science;'' and our venerable and ta-

8
lented Professor Coleman inculcates the necessity
of his students cultivating a respectful acquaint-
ance with the surgeons of the district where they
may be located ; but I trust I may be allowed to
add, for the honour of the profession of which I
am a humble member, that the day is now arrived
when the medical man no longer w^alks into the
infirmary of horses to dictate^ but merely for the
pleasure both of giving and receiving professional
information with that animus which ought ever
to subsist between brothers engaged in kindred
sciences.

I think I perceive that veterinary writers of the
new school, with one or two highly creditable ex-
ceptions, have principally devoted themselves to
the physiology of quadrupeds exclusively : my
humble efforts will be directed in the same chan-
nel, except that it will be my design to concen-
trate my feeble powers and experience by select-
ing subjects that may gain for me your encou-
ragement and approbation, as being equally appli-
cable to the human frame.

Two generations of veterinary men may now

9
be said to have appeared before the pubUc upon
the basis of a medical education and scientific prin-
ciples combined ; and Professor Coleman, the vete-
rinary surgeon in chief of Her Majesty's cavalry,
through the influence of his successful professional
career, and backed by his gentlemanly deport-
ment, having many years ago procured for cavalry
veterinary surgeons the rank of commissioned
officers from his late Majesty George the Fourth,
all respectable veterinary surgeons, whether in the
army or not, claim a station in society to which
before that consummation they had, perhaps, as^
pircd, but which can now^ no longer in fairness be
withheld from them.

I take this occasion, but with the utmost defer-
ence, to hint to the medical profession that an in-
tercourse with the veterinarian somewhat more
social would be duly appreciated by him ; and, I
will venture to add, would contribute greatly to-
wards the ends of science.

The operating and scientific veterinarian, in
some points of view, may be regarded as enjoying
facilities for the zealous prosecution of physiolo-

10
gical research, perhaps even greater and more
frequent than yourselves.

Although precision and dexterity are essentials
to the success of our chief or major operations,
yet their rapid execution is not indispensable, as
in the human patient, where its prolongation adds
terrors a hundred fold to the already excited
nervous system. In the intervals between the
struggles of our patients, just in proportion as the
operator possesses a philosophical mind, will
curious phenomena present themselves to or
rather be forced upon his notice within the lesions,
and such as he may have never heard or read of
in books.

As we emerge from our leading-strings, and
aided by all these advantages, the public, and the
medical profession in particular, have a just right
to expect from our researches the contribution of
an occasional mite towards extending the limits of
anatomical, physiological, and pathological know-
ledge as applicable to the human frame.

By the exercise of one remedy alone, viz. the
actual cautery, I have enjoyed almost daily, for

11

years, an insight into the mechanism of the cir-
culation in minute blood-vessels, such as cannot,
by possibility, have met the eye of human sur-
geons v^hen practising upon their fellow-creatures ;
and I feel very much inchned to assume, that few,
even of the most practical veterinarians, have been
indulged with the like inspection of the move-
ment of the living blood-vessels. My reasons for
such supposed exclusiveness are — First, the human
surgeon penetrates to the seat of disease invariably
by an incision through the skin or common inte-
guments by a scalpel, or cold steel m some shape
or other ; blood necessarily follows ; and hence a
physiological view of the circulation within the
vessels is veiled from his sight. On the contrary,
in my operations upon horses by cautery lesions,
for the removal of chronic lamenesses, consisting
of thickened ligaments, tendons, and especially
spavin, this last disease being a chronic tumour
upon the hock joint, I invariably make an incision
through the skin in its centre, from top to bottom.
This is also effected by a steel instrument with
a knife-like edge, but, observe, red hot ! The in-

12
stant the skin is severed, a considerable dilatation
of the lips of the wound ensues, the tumour is
exposed to view, and, in three instances out of
four, without the escape of a single drop of blood,
or stain sufficient to soil a white handkerchief,
and notwithstanding the horse's hide at this part
is very thick ; the subcutaneous tissues continue
for the space of several minutes, presenting a most
interesting spectacle to the inquiring physiologist
as regards the smaller blood-vessel system. Se-
condly, that veterinarians, generally speaking, do
not practise these deep cautery lesions.

The cellular membrane and fasciae have an
aspect delicately white, upon the surface of which
is to be seen a beautiful network of blood-vessels,
highly injected, forming a complete arborization,
the skin having receded without affecting their
integrity, and the efflux of blood from the highly
vascular skin itself being most effectually pre-
vented by the sealing effect of the cautery.

Gentlemen, anxiously soliciting for my humble
endeavours the utmost stretch of your candour,
and the exercise of your kindliest feelings, my

13
first essay will he upon the Blood, as found con-
tained in the living vessels — more especially the
arterial system.

I shall now address a few words to the humane,
whichj however, are not dictated hy any feelings
of resistance to their laudable sensitiveness for
the protection of the brute creation.

As before stated, 1 have been occupied the
greater part of my life in surgically operating
upon the horse, and, perhaps, severely, but with
the honest view of rendering the animal service-
able to the owner ; and I fearlessly and con-
scientiously avow, without any remorse ; yet in
every instance, and I confess they have been nu-
merous, that I have been tempted or warranted
in operating experimentally , a thrilling of my
nerves has invariably been an attendant, and
oftentimes I have abandoned my purpose in
consequence.

I merely mention this to show that I am not
devoid of feeling ; and that, unless the object

14
sought is otherwise unattainable, or of such para-
mount importance as to seem to give me a moral
right, I never use nor encourage the employment
of the scalpel.

15

ON THE BLOOD.

The precious life-blood, that fluid so often re-
ferred to in holy writ, must have arrested man's
attention, when in his earliest and rudest condi-
tion, upon beholding the fatal consequences to
animal life when spilled from its vessels. Doubt-
less he marvelled much ; and we have it upon
record that, from the first dawn of science, the
most learned men devoted themselves to the con-
templation of the phenomena of this important
fluid and its vessels; and the investigation ap-
pears to have been followed up by every succes-
sion of sages down to the periods of our immortal
countrymen, Harvey and Hunter.

The latter, in addition to his own discoveries,
having proclaimed those upon the blood of his
predecessor Harvey to be just and well founded,
an overwhelming effect has been produced, and
which has continued unabated throughout Europe

16
for the last fifty years, the result of the joint
labours of these two never tiring physiologists.

John Hunter's professional deeds, which justly
obtained for him the admiration of all the scien-
tific world, instead of being the ofi'spring of an ima-
ginative genius, that by flying leaps had pounced
down upon numberless important discoveries, were,
in truth, the valuable creation of an intellectual
slave, if 1 may be allowed such a phrase.

Conviction reached home to the minds of his
contemporaries and lookers-on as to the truth of
his doctrines, because they beheld with admiration
his Herculean labours, and perceived the print of
his foot upon every round of the ladder of Fame
before he reached the top : the whole world echoed
in affixing the stamp of truth upon all his writings ;
and if ever man had a right to be deemed an
oracle by his fellow men, it was John Hunter.

Now, let us reflect for a moment upon the con-
sequences of this unbounded confidence reposed
in the doings of a single individual. They have
been almost hallowed — they have been deemed by
succeeding writers sufficiently sound, both as to

17
quantity and quality, to have formed for them the
basis of a stupendous superstructure, a more huge
pile of physiological and pathological gleanings,
perhaps, the world has never before seen accu-
mulated.

If there has been a fatal error committed by
his followers through their sweeping credulity in
too general an adoption of his doctrines, it is no
reflection upon the great man from whom they
Jiave abstracted so much. They should have ex-
ercised more discrimination : nine out of ten of his
multifarious propositions are manifest advances
in physiological science, and, as before said, the
route by which they were arrived at was simply
and plainly laid open. The truth is, that the great
Hunter in his glorious pursuit accumulated such
a huge mass of facts before unknown to the sci-
entific world, that even his theories have been
held in greater veneration than plain important
discoveries, the offspring of more humble indi-
viduals.

Now, as John Hunter was but a man, although
one of no common order, it is just possible that

18
he may have been in error as to one or more of his
great fundamental principles regarding the blood,
which he most prized when he broached his great
theory of the vitality of the blood, the causes of its
coagulation, &c. I doubt not for a moment but
he sincerely believed in its trutli. But mark the
caution of this rigid observer of facts, wherein
he makes this exclamation — " To conceive that
blood is endowed with life while circulating is,
perhaps, carrying the imagination as far as it can
well go."

Those who have been in the habit of perusing
the standard physiological works of our own coun-
trymen as they have appeared during the last
fifteen or twenty years, and which have not been
few nor poor, must have been forcibly struck by
the extraordinary manner in which their authors
have all harmonized with each other in regard to
the attributes of the blood — viz. its circulation,
uses, life, coagulation, separation, constituents,
&c. ; this harmony continuing to the present hour,
as if inviolable, except by the occasional advances
of the philosophical chemist, who disdains to

19
notice it at ih^ fountain, but wrangles about some
elementary atom which his skill may have sepa-
rated through the agency of some chemical at-
traction perhaps unknown on the day before.
But, notwithstanding the additional lights of che-
mistry upon the blood have been important, still
the theories as to its physiology, circulation, and
coagulation remain unchanged.

Now, when I confess to my readers that I pro-
pose not in this section of my work to question
the validity of this universally received doctrine
of the blood, except so far as I may show the
possibility of investigating the character, proper-
ties, motion, &c.of this interesting ^viidiwhile con-
tained in the natural state within its living vessels,
it will be obvious to the reader that I am released
from the onus of an elaborate dissertation upon
the blood generally, and that I may confine my-
self to an exposition of the characteristics of that
fluid while traversing its natural channels with the
perfect integrity of the vessels and health of the
animal. In attempting to carry out this object,

20
I am buoyed up with the vanity of believing that
I have hit upon an expedient which will test the
qualities and motion of this mysterious fluid after
a manner heretofore unknown.

Heretical scepticism as to some of the Hunte-
rian doctrines of the blood having possessed my
mind, I resolved upon tracing with jealous scru-
tiny the several operations and experiments com-
bined which had conspired to form in John
Hunter's mind those opinions upon the blood
which have proved so popular to this hour, having
passed current for half a century and upwards.

I soon conceived an utter dissatisfaction as to
the manner in which that great authority had
conducted his chief experiments upon the living
animal, with the view of testing that important
property of the blood called coagulation ; because
I fancied I could perceive that the anxious object
of his search eluded his mighty grasp, giant as he
unquestionably was.

I then quitted the great Hunter for a season,
repaired to Harvey, and followed his experi-

21
ments seriatim upon the living animal, and in vain
did I seek for proof positive, even in this high
quarter.

Not stopping here, but consulting the medical
works of the living stars of this unrivalled metro-
polis, without beholding Nature duly reflected
from their mirror, as regards one section of their
labours, viz. the physiology of the blood, my
peculiar views being at variance with the prevail-
ing theory, misgivings gathering daily in my mind,
I resolved (considering myself something beyond
a tyro) on marking out my own path into the
living domains of Nature.

But as victim upon victim would be necessarily
involved in this undertaking, I pausedj'deliberated,
studied, and, 1 hope, with Christian feeling, upon
the least possible amount of animal suffering. I
then applied myself to the invention of a mecha-
nical apparatus^ the instantaneous spring of which
I intended should seize within a barrel about an
inch and a half in length, or more, of either of the
larger arteries which might be preferred (the ca-
rotid, for instance), of any living healthy animal,

2

22

the machine being so constructed that each extre-
mity of the barrel or spring clasp should act si-
multaneously in the constriction of the denuded
artery. The reader will now^ I trust, be prepared
to allow me to utter my protest against the old
mode of exploring the contents of Hving arteries.

I mean to contend, that the process hitherto
employed has been too slow to have been certain,
and that the experimenters have been deluded.
Even the indefatigable Hunter lost the race when
he undertook to imprison the vital current in its
normal condition within the living vessels.

A more subtle fluid in the natural state of the
animal traverses his arteries than has been
dreamed of by physiologists of the last two cen-
turies ; and I flatter myself that I am in a con-
dition to maintain this bold position by actual
demonstration.

I shall commence my exposition by quoting
John Hunter's own words, in his memorable 'Trea-
tise on the Blood/ vide page 14 : — '' The frequent
recourse which is had to the lancet in diseases
has afforded the most ample opportunities of ob-

23

servation, almost sufficient to explain every prin-
ciple in the blood, without the aid of further ex-
periment."

At page 1 7, '' There is, I think, more to be
learned of the use of the blood in the animal
economy from its coao^ulation than from its
fluidity."

From these passages it must, I think, be in-
ferred, that Hunter's theory of the blood was
founded chiefly upon his observation and expe-
rience of that fluid token removed from its vessels.

Now, let us inquire how he conducted some of
the most important of his experiments. He says,
at page Qb, "I laid bare the carotid artery of a
living dog, for about two inches in length ; I then
tied a thread round it at each end, leaving a space
of two inches in length between each hgature filled
with blood ; the external wound was stitched
loosely up. Several hours after I opened the
stitches, and observed in this vessel that the
blood was coagulated, and of a dark colour, the
same as in the vein ! "

This is strictly true ; many of us have found

24
the same result ; and I believe the same will always
be found, provided the experiment be conducted
as described above.

The phenomena exhibited, such as the coagu-
lated state of the blood, and its dark colour, being
strictly in accordance with Hunter's expectations,
both in theory and practice, this great observer
was lulled into the delusive hope, that he had ex-
hibited a fair sample of the same identical blood
of which the volume was composed.

Now, I make bold to deny the truth of these
positions; and I undertake, by the sudden seizure
of an inch and a half of the carotid artery of a
living animal, to cause an instantaneous imprison-
ment of its contents in their transit, and that, by
the result of this momentary isolation of the ar-
terial trunk and its contents, no men will be more
astounded than the admirers and faithful followers
of the late John Hunter.

25

EXPERIMENT I.

A horse, eleven years old, in fair condition,
about fifteen hands two inches high; three parts
bred, was cast. A longitudinal incision of about
three inches in length was made in his neck, on
the off side, in the direction of the carotid artery,
and deepened with the greatest caution, to avoid
an unnecessary flow of blood from the capillaries,
till about an inch and a half of the trunk of this
artery was denuded. On being exposed to view,
its pulsation was distinctly felt.

Very little blood had escaped up to this stage
of the operation ; and during the time occupied
in pulsing the artery the bleeding quite ceased
from the minute vessels. The connexion of the
artery by its cellular tissue to the surrounding
parts having been removed to a length corre-
sponding to the contemplated embrace of the
instrument, my newly invented apparatus was
now placed under the carotid, the artery pulsating
strongly, and the instrument seized the vessel in-
stantaneously, to my entire satisfaction.

26

At this juncture the operator and patient may
both safely have a few moment's respite : the ob~
ject sought after is isolated, and securely locked
up within a case, the calibre of which being suf-
ficiently ample to avoid the slightest compression
of the imprisoned artery, except at both extre-
mities, which are hermetically sealed by the sudden
constriction of the instrument. Ligatures were
now passed round both ends of the carotid above
and below the machine employed.

Without further delay the apparatus with its
contents was detached from the living animal by
severing the carotid artery with a pair of scissors,
as closely as possible to each extremity of in-
strument. The external wound having been closed
by two or three sutures, nothing remained to be
done but to release the animal from the ropes.

Although my curiosity was excited to the ut-
most stretch to unlock the casket and view the
contents immediately, I refrained, but placed it
hi a medium temperature, and stationary, until four
hours had elapsed from the moment of the incar-
ceration of the artery.

27

Examination of the Contents of the detached portion
of the Artery.

Without pretending to anticipate whether the
vessel contained anything or not, I fortunately
had the precaution to place it upon a dish. One
extremity of the artery was now opened by slack-
ening the instrument, and a small quantity of fluid
instantly escaped with a slight jet. The stream
was minute and momentary, of a bright scarlet
colour, and of remarkable tenuity, and was dis-
persed in a splash over the surface of a small dish,
appearing at the moment homogeneous, but it
instantly separated into two distinct parts, red
particles (I do not say, globules) and a transpa-
rent liquid, thin and almost colourless, exactly
resembling condensed vapour. The red particles
did not float, but gravitated.

Of course, I most anxiously watched this inte-
resting fluid, thinking it might be fibrin in solu-
tion, or held in suspension ; but, strange to say,
no part formed into a clot — no jellying — no solidi-
fication ; not a particle would adhere to a pin's

28
point, or even to its head. I then sht open the
artery, and found it perfectly empty, not omitting
to examine most minutely the parietes of the ar-
tery at each end, which had encountered the in-
stantaneous grasp of the instrument : but not a
particle of congealed blood was imprisoned even
there.

Now, to return to the red particles as they ap-
peared to the unassisted eye, and I do not pretend
at present to offer a microscopic description ; in
fact, I am much at a loss how to describe these
bodies. They were of a florid, crimson hue, and
very much resembled, in shape and size, the sedi-
ment of old port wine, as it appears at the bottom
of a wine-glass after receiving the drainings of the
last drop from the bottle ; but of a brighter red
colour.

Here arises a vital question. Was this blood ?
I answer, that it was not, according to the general
acceptation of that word. But before it can be
pronounced what it was, a phalanx of talent must
be energetically employed — a new system of in-
vestigation must be instituted — the researches of

29
the chymist, in conjunction with the most dex-
terous, patient, and industrious anatomists, aided
by the microscopic field; and when all these lights
have been brought to bear, we may, perhaps, be
reluctantly driven back to the reconsideration of
the theory of the ancients.

Startled by the result of my first experiment, I
began to ask myself whether, like hundreds of
others now silent in their graves, who had indulged
in prying into Nature's secrets, I had added an-
other deluded mortal to that number, yet eagerly
clinging to the vain hope that I had struck into a
new track towards the development of some great
physiological truth.

I reasoned with myself thus : — If I have stolen
a march, and approached somewhat nearer a great
secret, that which I have obtained from a living
carotid was procured under circumstances of great
outrage to the organization of the parts concerned,
and to the vascular system generally, how can I
or any other human being tell but the mere cir-
cumstance of exposing the external surface of so
large and important a vessel to the impression

30

of the atmospheric air, independent of and prior
to the rude appUcation of an instrument, may have
instantly revolutionized its contents, and subvert-
ed the action of the organ.

Now, in telling the truth, and not withholding
the whole truth, I found that the arterial trunk pul-
sated energetically in proportion to the exposure
and degree of irritation to which it was subjected
prior to the seizure by the apparatus.

With these reflections, therefore, I considered
my experiment anything but conclusive, and im-
mediately resolved upon another, by which I
should carry the same thing out under very dif-
ferent circumstances.

It occurred to me that I would make a seizure
with my instrument of the spermatic artery of a
living animal, because every facility might be af-
forded for the effectual embrace of the vessel with-
out the artery being denuded, exposed to the air,
or even the actual contact of the instrument, plen-
ty of cellular tissue being interposed.

31

EXPERIMENT II.

A fine healthy stalhon ass was procured, five
years old, vip^orous, full of flesh, and from hard
work. He was cast : his testicles were well deve-
loped.

An incision was carefully made in the scrotum,
to allow the left testicle to escape from its capsule
without wounding that organ or its spermatic
chord.

Several inches above the epididymus a small
puncture was made through the chord length-
ways, but only in the slight connecting medium
between the blood-vessels and the vas deferens, a
transparent cellular tissue, thin as gauze, and
bloodless, merely for the passage of the instru-
ment, that it might encompass artery and vein
without including the vas deferens in the gripe.

The spring apparatus having performed its of-
fice effectually, it was immediately detached, with
the testicle appended to it, and the animal was
allowed to get up, retaining the other testicle for
a future experiment.

32

After much reflection upon this case, I feel in-
cUned to beUeve that the spermatic artery and
contents were instantaneously enclosed while in
their normal condition.

1st. The coats of the artery had not been one
moment exposed to the atmospheric air, as was
the case in the carotid experiment.

2d. During its compression the instrument
never touclied the vessel, all the other tissues of
the chord being interposed.

3d. Not a particle of blood or substance had
been removed from the chord ; it was entire, ex-
cept the very trivial perforation above described,
through a part which was transparent from its
thinness.

The imprisoned portion of the spermatic artery
was about two inches in length, and as in the
former experiment of the carotid, it was not
opened and examined until after the lapse of four
hours : it yielded precisely the same result, but the
quantity of the fluid was very small.

33

EXPERIMENT III.

The external submaxillary artery in the horse is
a vessel of considerable calibre, considering its
superficial situation where it passes over the lower
jaw-bone ; and the veterinarian being so familiar
with it, as affording the most convenient part for
feeling the pulse, I was tempted to explore its
contents, but more particularly from the faciUty
of exposing it to view with so little previous dis-
section.

A healthy ass was cast, an incision in the skin
of about three inches in length was made in the
jaw of the off side, in the direction of the artery,
commencing exactly where this vessel crosses the
jaw-bone, and continued upward towards the face ;
nearly an inch and a half of that portion of the
artery was exposed to view, which was believed to
send off little or no branches.

The duct of the parotid gland being so conti-
guous to the artery at this part, it was decided
not to separate them, to avoid unnecessary expo-

34
sure of the blood-vessel. The apparatus was then
applied, and it effectually embraced both trunks.

Ligatures were then applied to the artery and
the duct, and the animal was released.

This artery and its contents were examined
within three hours after the operation, with the
same results, and not a particle of clotted blood
or coagulum could be found.

Having announced in detail the foregoing facts,
which have resulted from repeated dissections of
the living animal, I do not hesitate to avow, that
I think John Hunter was wrong, wherein he states
at page 17, as before quoted, '^ that mote is to be
learned of the use of the blood in the animal eco-
nomy from its coagulation than from its fluidity ^

As a sceptic of the Hunterian and Harveian
doctrines, I here take my stand. But there are
luminaries of the present day guided mainly in
their decision upon all the phenomena of the
blood, its physiology, pathology, &c. by its coa-
gulating power, by the presence of fibrin as to
quantity and quality.

If we turn to our neighbours on the continent.

35

we find that indefatigable French philosopher,
Magendie, absolutely absorbed by the subject,
vide his invaluable lectures in the " Lancet!'

This model of a teacher of animal organiza-
tion, who wisely rejects every theory which is
found to quail under the test of experimental in-
quiry,— even this cautious inquirer, this just critic
upon a hugh pile of groundless theories, with the
utmost complacency experiments upon the clot
of blood recently abstracted by ordinary blood-
letting from his patients (to use his own words),
from the temporal artery, for instance, and then
expatiates upon the quality and quantity of the
fibrin it contains, as though he imagined that cup
of arterial blood to have been a fair specimen of the
fluid which was traversing that vessel the instant
before he plunged in his lancet, and opened a
communication between its cavity and the sur-
rounding atmosphere.

This extrication of invisible gas, or rather blood
steam, from the aperture in the artery, appears to
have been known to the Greek physicians of
olden time ; but that dazzling theory of the mo-

36
derns, the '' vitality of the blood," has so amused
the sages of the last century or two, as to have
dispelled all reflection upon that notable fact duly
noted by our forefathers.

But modern authors and lecturers have built
so largely, have raised such an immense super-
structure upon Harvey and Hunter's groundwork,
and all its machinery having hitherto worked well,
seemingly down to our own time, in all probability
the present generation will combine heart and
hand in underpinning and vamping up this breach
in the foundation, as disclosed by the foregoing
experiments upon the blood-vessel system of living
animals.

EXPERIMENT IV.

A muscular blood stallion, eight years old, fif-
teen hands and three inches high, vigorous, and
in working condition, was cast and secured in the
ordinary way for castration : the testicles were
large and sound. The scrotum was opened by
the scalpel with especial care, to permit the

37

escape of the testicles without wounding or in
the sHghtest degree impairing the integrity of
those organs. My new apparatus before men-
tioned was apphed to the spermatic chord above
the epididymus, encircUng the entire rope. At
the will of the operator the instrument causes an
instantaneous compression or ligature of all the
blood-vesselsof the chord connected withtheorgan.
This large vascular gland is isolated in a twink-
Hng, and the contents of its blood-vessel tissue
may be fairly considered imprisoned suddenly
\yhile in their normal condition ; and, in order that
no communication might be opened between them
and the atmosphere while they retained any ani-
mal heat, the testicles were allowed to remain
appended to the animal for about twelve hours be-
fore they were cut off; and during their excision
every drop of fluid which escaped was carefully
collected.

Then immediately followed a most tedious and
patient dissection of the testicle, commencing by
unravelling the convolutions of the vessels of the

38
chord, and tracing their branches until lost in the
body of the testicle.

After laying open the blood-vessel tissues from
end to end, and finding them to contain a dark
red fluid, shall I be believed when I declare, that
they were devoid of a particle of clot — I mean, of
congealed or coagulated blood?

From the following experiment upon the con-
tents of living blood-vessels, an opposite result was
produced.

EXPERIMENT V.

•

A healthy middle-sized horse, seven years old,
in good flesh, was chosen, having a good tail, that
is, his dock entire, and abundantly supplied with
hair, was prepared for the operation of docking in
the common way. The tail was amputated rather
high up with the ordinary docking machine, and
it was severed instantaneously.

It was ray design to trace the contents of the
blood-vessels of the detached portion, as I had be-
fore done of the testicle.

39

Accordingly, while an assistant was amputating
the tail, I had a firm grasp w ith my hand upon that
portion which was to come off, having it held in
that direction that its wounded surface would be
the most elevated at the moment of excisionj
thereby preventing more than a single drop or two
of blood faUing from it to the ground. Upon a very
attentive and immediate examination of this raw
surface remaining uppermost in my hand, instead
of its becoming coated or sealed over with a clot
of congealed or coagulated blood, I found that, in
a few seconds, a transparent lymph accumulated,
and covered the entire surface, and which re-
mained a perfectly thin fluid after the lapse of
several minutes, and that a few particles of red
blood in patches might be seen through this tran-
sparent fluid, oozing from the mouths of two or
three principal vessels.

In this elevated position I secured the stump,
and left it in a temperature of about sixty de-
grees for nearly three hours, when I returned for
my dissection and tracing of the blood-vessels;

The greater part of the transparent lymph had

40
evaporated or disappeared, but had not coagu-
lated. In this case I was spared the trouble of a
minute dissection ; for the moment I inspected
the mouths of the principal vessels, I found each
completely plugged with red coagulated blood, so
fibrinous and tenacious, that I was enabled to
pull out strings of blood some inches in length
from one or two of the principal trunks. Where-
as, in the dissection of the testicle there was
nothing like so much clotted blood to be found
in the entire organ as commonly escapes in the
space of two minutes from a man's chin in acci-
dentally shaving off a pimple.

41

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

Having instituted a series of novel experiments
— at least I conceive them to be new — and hav-
ing now laid a portion of them before the public,
especially the medical community, accompanied
with an earnest solicitation that they may conde-
scendingly test their accuracy, with the exercise
of all the candour and kindness which they are
wont to bestow upon persevering efforts at im-
provement, however feeble may be the power
exercised, I proceed at once to a cursory review
of them, and conclude this section of my work by
venturing to draw some inferences ; but as I con-
template appearing again on this subject before
the public, I deem it prudent to premise, that,
while I aspire to the honour of favorable notice
by accumulating and placing upon record physio-
logical/<5fc/5 as developed by patient and intricate
research, I earnestly hope that I may not be se-
duced into a train of speculative deductions.

42

I am not unaware that if, by the dint of acci-
dental good fortune, application, and a little tact,
I should succeed in raising a few buried truths to
the light of day, my inferences from those facts
may be erroneous and worthless, and therefore it
will be my policy to leave hypotheses for the spe-
culation and risk of others.

Remarks on Experiment I. — All physiologists
of the present and of the last century with one
accord have referred to the coagulating property
of the blood as one of its most interesting attri-
butes.

They have always found, that upon blood being
spilled from the vessels of a healthy animal, whe-
ther from artery or vein, it has quickly assumed a
solid form. When, actuated by the spirit of expe-
rimental inquiry, they have imprisoned the blood
of the living animal within the large trunks, either
of arteries or veins, between two ligatures^ and
after the lapse of three or four hours, upon slitting
them open, they have invariably found the blood
coagulated, and of a dark colour (vide Hunter, Sir
Astley Cooper, Majendie, and others). But when

43

I lay bare the carotid artery of a living animal,
availing myself of the aid of peculiar machinery,
and isolate about two inches of the vessel, with its
contents, instantaneously/, and thereby catch the
containing fluid flying or in its transit, and, after
allowing it to remain quiescent in a temperature
of sixty degrees for three or four hours, then slit
the vessel open, what do I find — a fluid ? Yes.
Is it blood? I do not know ; — it appears to the
eye like condensed steam or vapour of a bright
red hue, extremely thin and transparent ; the co-
louring particles gravitate, and a limpid fluid floats
on them; not a particle of coagulum is to be
seen ; the red particles adhere tenaciously to the
dish, but the delicate fluid evaporates rather
quickly.

To account for this difi*erence in the results
of the two operations physiologically in all their
bearings would, I conceive, be no easy task. For
my own part, I shall not pretend to it until I have
been enlightened by adopting the same course of
exploration through the venous system as that
which I have just described with the arterial.

44

The veins I have experimented upon with the
apparatus only in part.

With regard to the triinh of veins, in the pre-
sent stage of the inquiry, I have not sufficient con-
fidence to report progress, although I am exceed-
ingly sanguine as to the result of future investiga-
tion upon the foregoing principles.

The Experiments II and III are merely con-
firmatory of the first : but Experiments IV and V
I imagine are pregnant with matter soliciting deep
and serious reflection.

It will be seen, that I contrived with my appa-
ratus to strangle the testicle of a vigorous horse
by the instantaneous gripe of the instrument upon
the spermatic chord, preserving, at the same time,
the perfect integrity of the gland and its adjacent
parts. It was isolated, dead ; but allowed to re-
main attached to the animal for twelve hours after
the operation, when it was removed by a pair of
scissors.

It was my design, in conducting this experi-
mental operation, besides efi'ecting the sudden stop,
page of the arterial and venous systems through-

45

out the organ, also to effectually retain within the
vascular tissues the full quantum of the blood's
gas or steam, as well as the blood itself, which
naturally and properly belonged to the detached
testicle ; and I think T perfectly succeeded.

I am quite aware of the exclamation this must
call forth ! What can this writer mean by his
'' blood's gas or steam ? " I answer, fearlessly and
without reserve, that I believe the present gene-
ration of philosophers are doomed to the humili-
ating task of retracing the steps of the ancients
upon more important points that one vitally con-
nected with the animal economy.

Those of the very old school have reiterated
that no perforation, however small, can be effected
in a living blood-vessel without the instantaneous
extrication of vital air ; and they go on to say,
that the escape of the blood, which is so evident
to our optics, is a necessary sequence of the com-
munication thus opened between the vessel and
the atmospheric air.

I have been brought up legitimately in the new
school, but by a long persistance in experimental

46
inquiry, T am constrained thereby to go over to
the old school, as regards the physiology of the
blood.

Not unmindful of the impotency of these re-
marks of mine, unless supported by proofs I has-
ten to avow, that in my next Essay I expect to
substantiate them chiefly upon the practical basis
of absolute demonstration, relying upon theory
only as an auxiliary, and in nowise admitting it
except as collateral evidence.

By hermetically sealing the trunks of blood-ves-
sels at the instant a gland or any distinct organ
is isolated from the rest of the living animal, as,
for instance, the testicle, tail, head, or penis, I
imagine that, besides securing the whole of the
blood in its proper vessels, the halitus is also pre-
served. In no other way can I at present ac-
count for the blood retaining its perfect fluidity
after the lapse of twenty-four hours from its death^
as illustrated in Experiment IV of the horse's
strangled testicle.

This result suggested to me the necessity of
Experiment V, the amputation of the tail of a

47
horse high up towards its root, which is instan-
taneously effected by the common method of ope-
rating. It will be remembered that, although
every drop of blood was preserved within the
vessels of the detached member, no provision in
this case was made for the detention of the
halitus^ or blood's (/as.

Did an anxious inspection of the contents of
the vascular trunks of this dead tail furnish pro-
ducts corresponding with the vessels of the dead
testicle ? By no means : they agreed only as con-
taining blood ; but mark well how they disagreed ;
in a much less space of time after the amputa-
tion than in the preceding experiment, the blood
was ^OMXid. firmly coagulated within its vessels.

On the contrary, with the testicle I had to trace
the vascular canals throughout their ramifications
to obtain even small clots of congealed blood,
such as would lodge upon a pin^s head ; while, on
the other hand, with the amputated tail, I was
spared all trouble of dissection, for by merely ap-
plying the forceps to the mouth of each trunk, T
not only seized a clot, but its tenacity was so great

48
that shreds, amounting to two inches in length,
of coagulated blood were withdrawn; and fur-
ther, each portion of this blood was in a state of
solidity, and appeared to correspond exactly, as to
shape and volume, with the calibre of its vessel.
T mean to assert broadly, that the application of
the Hunterian theory of the vitality of the blood
will not reconcile these differences.

I have as yet limited the description of the ap-
plication of my new apparatus for testing the con-
tents of the trunks of living blood-vessels to the
arteries only, though its use has also been ex
tended to the jugular veins ; but I feel very con-
siderable hesitation at present in reporting pro-
gress thereon : enough, however, has transpired
to warrant me in prosecuting these experiments
much further, particularly as regards the venous
system.

Before I dare to give utterance to all that I
have already collected affecting the stability of
the Harveian doctrine of the circulation of the
blood, I must be allowed time and opportunity to
extend my experimental inquiry ^ as the reader will

49
remember I profess to despise conjecture or hy-
pothesis upon a subject paramount in importance
to every other connected with the organization
and laws of animal life.

In order to carry these views out, whether suc-
cessful or not in the issue, I regret to add, that
the Vena Cava, anterior or posterior, or both, of
a large-sized living animal must be embraced by
the new instrument — perhaps the heart itself.

I intend that some early number of the Register
shall be provided with an Engraving representing
the construction of my new apparatus.

In quitting the chronicling part of this subject
for a short season, in order to return more vigor-
ously to its practical part, I shall avail myself of
the opportunity it presents of addressing a very
few words to the brethren of my own subordinate
though important profession, having commenced
my Essay by an appeal to all the charitable and
best feelings of the members of the elder science
in behalf of these humble efforts.

I am forcibly struck with the idea, that my ve-
terinary compeers are the men most likely, in the

50
end, to bring to bear a refutation or confirmation
of the views herein advanced with reference to
the blood, notwithstanding a perfect willing-
ness on my own part to succumb to the predo-
minant attainments of the members of the elder
science, supposing zeal and application upon equa-
lity between the two classes.

The superior eligibility of the veterinarian will
consist in the facilities which every succeeding day
will afford him of testing, in a variety of ways, the
new points which I have ventured to broach ; still
pursuing his ordinary avocations, in his natural
element, and within his accustomed sphere of
action. Not so easy, however, with the medical
man, who takes up the subject honestly and zea-
lously.

He must make his mind up to encounter at the
onset an assemblage of vexatious circumstances,
viz. the sacrifice of his valuable time and money,
and must even procure veterinary assistance, to
furnish the tact necessary for surgically operating
upon very large animals; and I shall conclude
by offering my opinion, that the carrying out of

51

these researches upon cold-blooded animals, or
on any animals of very small dunensions, will be
futile.

Part II will be devoted to the consideration of
the Venous System, with the narration of nu-
merous experiments.

PaiNTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

PART II

NEW VIEWS

OF THE

CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD,

IN MAN AND QUADRUPEDS;

WITH AN EXPOSITION OF SOME

FALLACIES IN THE HARVEIAN DOCTRINE.

PREFACE.

The First Part of these Records of Experiments
upon living animals was prefaced by an Address
from the author to the medical profession. The
present Part is more especially dedicated to the
reading public generally, and technicahties are
therefore as much as possible dispensed with, — a
course which will be adopted in the succeeding
portions of the work.

A general knowledge of the structure of the
human body, together with the functions of the
organs essential to life, constituting a part of the
education of every nobleman or gentleman of the
present day, he is competent — although non-pro-
fessional and without knowledge of minaie anatomy

11 PREFACE.

— to comprehend these experiments, unique as
they unquestionably are, and, if he choose, may
satisfy his curiosity as to whether Harvey, Hunter,
and their followers have told him the truth, the
whole tintth, and nothing but the truth, touching
the blood's movement.

Horse. Infirmary, 311, Regent Street,
Londov, March 1843.

57

ON THE BLOOD.

PART II.

The Harveian doctrine, as regards the circula-
tion of tlie blood, has stood the test of the scruti-
nizing researches of hosts of physiologists for
upwards of two centuries. It has been confirmed
by our great oracle, John Hunter, and adopted
by all the continental philosophers. Harvey's
theory prevails in India, and it has been promul-
gated throughout America.

By the aid of the microscope of the present
century the charm of ocular demonstration has
been superadded.

The oft-repeated experiments of my own upon
the vascular system of living animals have at length
assured me that the Harveian theory contains
much truth, and that it is founded upon an ever-

£

58
lasting basis; yet I have sufficient grounds to
declare^ most unequivocally, that it is lamentably
deficient of the whole truth; other matters of
great moment are concerned in the circulation of
the vital fluid.

To bring fairly out a precise account of this
deficit is the task I have set myself; and in pro-
secuting my present undertaking, I hope at least
industriously to apply all my feeble forces. Why,
the task is herculean! exclaims the reader, with
indignation ; and which reminds me of a stricture
of an elegant writer on the blood, lately deceased, —
" It would seem as if a rude hand were about to
be laid upon our great countryman."

Now, when we reflect that the swell of national
pride, being the accumulation of several successive
generations, may have had its tendency to lull
suspicion and put down scepticism in this country,
as to the integrity of the Harveian doctrine, we
may be well assured that it has received no such
shield from the philosophical inquirers upon the
continent. Could they have wrested such a laurel
from us, they would have deemed it worthy the

59
effort. The vast amount of intellect which has
been concentrated upon this subject, in all coun-
tries, and during an age, perhaps, of the highest
civilization of the known world, sufficiently stamps
it as a genuine truth, and we have on record this
pleasing accompaniment, — that the great founder
did not stumble upon his discovery accidentally,
or between sleep and awake, but that it was the
result of toil and talent most assiduously applied.

I now disclaim any heretical feehng ; but I as-
sert, roundly, that Harvey did not live sufficiently
long to go far enough ; neither have any of his fol-
lowers in their investigations as to the circulation
of the blood ; therefore there is yet a wide field
unexplored, richly deserving the best energies of
philosophers or inquiring physiologists.

The great error of Harvey and modem phy-
siologists consists in their having recognized a
current of liquid oiily through the arterial channels ;
whereas, there exists also a gaseous current, of
equal volume, traversing the same vessels in con-
junction at one and the same time.

The whole volume of blood within the arteries

60
and veins of every warm-blooded animal is ex-
tremely diluted with air: its globules and ulti-
mate particles of fibrin are preserved in a state of
separation by a free gas, very great in volume,
which pervades the arterial apparatus, but which
is less in proportion in the veins.

Arterial blood, in its t7'ansit,is a fluid of extreme
tenuity, of a bright scarlet colour, composed of
the liquor sanguinis and red corpuscles, circulat-
ing in conjunction with a gaseous medium.

When by accident or design an arterial trunk
of a living animal is severed, the whizzing noise
which is heard with the escape of the stream of
blood is owing to the extrication of this gas, a
communication having been opened with the com-
mon atmosphere. An experimenter of the pre-
sent day, collecting a basin full from this arterial
stream, would expect, and fearlessly assert, that
it was identical with the fluid which formed the
current the instant before the breach was made
in the vessel. It is no such- thing; for just in
proportion to the amount of gas which has escaped
from the bloodvessel, and lost itself in the external

61
air, has fibrin in excess found its way into the
basin ; not by the one continuous stream, but by
derivation from every anastomosing branch in the
vicinity of the wounded tnmk. Nature's sponta-
neous cure of hemorrhage by coagulation of the
blood and plugging up of the vessel is an illustration
of this. The great Architect of Nature appears to
have ordained that, in the exact ratio as the \dtal
gas has escaped from the breach, so shall fibrin
follow by derivation.

The occasions upon which I have caught the
arterial fluid in its transit have now become so nu-
merous, and, having invariably found it of the same
undeviating subtle, thin, scarlet, transparent cha-
racter, I am fully impressed with a belief that the
web of fibrin which it contains is so extremely
diluted in the aeriform fluid with which it is min-
gled, that it does not of itself, per se, possess the
qualities of coagulation sufficient to plug a breach
in its vessel.

It is well known that the records of the ancient
physiologists are very voluminous, as to the ar-
teries being air-carriers ; and hence their name :

62
but as their writings contain no proofs or demon-
strations by actual experiment, the utmost that can
be awarded, in fairness, to those of olden time is
the credit of having guessed the fact.

Their hypotheses, however, prevailed down to
the time of Harvey, by whose discoveries they
have been overwhelmed for two hundred years,
and thus for a season exploded.

The coagulation of the blood was a stumbling
block to the great Hunter, if I may dare such an
expression. All physiologists, even of the present
century — foreign as well as British — have, more
or less, confessed their inability satisfactorily to de-
termine upon the cause or causes of the coagu-
lation of the blood : while some have supposed
the coagulation of the fibrin a proof of the death
of the blood, others have regarded it as an act of
vitality. But if it can be shewn that there exists
in the circulating blood a very large constituent,
forming one of its constant and natural elements,
which has hitherto eluded the observation of phi-
losophic pursuers, this difficult problem may pos-
sibly be rendered more easy of solution.

63

To substantiate this daring declaration, and
bring conviction home to the mind of the reader,
I am well aware that negative proofs alone will
not suffice, but that I must advance many of a
positive character.

This Second Section of my work will contain
several experiments never before published ;
but I must commence by recurring to some of
the experiments to be found in Part I, of the
"Register" for 1839*. The peculiar instrument
employed by me for the investigation of the cha-
racteristics of the blood while traversing its na-
tural channels, during the perfect integrity of the
vessels and health of the animal, or, briefly speak-
ing, catching the blood in transit within its artery,
is thus described at page 21 : ''A mechanical ap-
paratus, by the instantaneous spring of which an
inch and a half, or more, of a denuded artery — the
carotid for instance — of any living healthy animal
is suddenly seized within a barrel ; the instrument
being so constructed, that each extremity of the

* A tew copies of Part I may yet be had of Messrs. Long-
man & Co.

64
barrel acts simultcmeoiisly in the constriction of
both the exposed extremities of the vessel; — the
caliber of the barrel being sufficiently ample to
avoid the slightest compression of the imprisoned
artery, except at both its extremities, which are
hermetically sealed by instantaneous compression."

Hitherto, when physiologists have imprisoned
the blood of a living animal in any large trunk —
the carotid artery, for instance — of the space of
two inches, between two ligatures, and have al-
lowed three or four hours to elapse, they have
invariably found the blood coagulated, and of a
dark colour, upon slitting open the vessel. (^Vide
Hunter, Sir Astley Cooper, Magendie, and
others.)

But when I undertake a sudden seizure of such
a portion of the artery of a living animal with the
new instrument, and cause an instantaneous im-
prisomnent of its contents in transit, a result to-
tally different is obtained.

The reader is now most earnestly referred for
details to Experiment I, page 25, of my Register
of Experiments, for 1839. I have there shewn

65
that all the blood within the isolated artery re-
tains its perfect fluidity, together with its bright
scarlet hue. To account for these phenomena,
viz. the coagulation in Hunter's experiment be-
tween the tw^o ligatures, and the non-coagulation
in my experiment with the new apparatus, will
now be my immediate object.

I have before stated, that, by my method, two
inches of the denuded artery are seized with the
utmost rapidity, and both its extremities are her-
metically sealed at the same instant of time. It
is, therefore, fair to assume, that the contents of
the isolated artery would be a true specimen of
the fluid which constituted the current the instant
before the vessel was interrupted : this is my sin-
cere behef.

At the expiration of three hom's after the ope-
ration, I found the imprisoned artery distended
with blood and air; forming together an ex-
tremely thin fluid of a bright red colour. Upon
its escape from the vessel into a plate, the red
coi*puscles gravitated immediately — all the residue
was a thin limpid fluid uppermost. After the

F

66
lapse of eight or ten minutes, shreds of coagulated
fibrin might be drawn in strings by the point of a
pin or needle from the colourless portion ; but in
the first instance not the minutest particle could
be detected in a congealed or coagulated state, or
withdrawn by adhesion or any other means.

I therefore infer, that air is the solvent of the
blood, or, rather, that the atoms of the blood, while
circulating in the arterial tubes, are separated by
the presence of rarefied air.

John Hunter describes his experiment, in his
memorable Treatise on the Blood, in the follow-
ing words, at page 65 : — '' I laid bare the carotid
artery of a living dog, for about two inches in
length ; I then tied a thread round it at each end,
leaving a space of two inches in length between
each hgature filled with blood; the external
wound was stitched loosely up. Several hours
after I opened the stitches, and observed in this
vessel that the blood was coagulated, and of a
dark colour, the same as in the vein !" a result
diametrically the reverse of that which I have de-
scribed as attending my experiment.

67
Now comes the question, Why was the blood
found coagulated in this instance ? I have said
that, in my case, it retained its fluidity owing to
the co-existence of a large proportion of air. In
Hunter's case it coagulated, I apprehend, from a
comparative absence of air. All experimenters
who have practised this operation tell us, they
tie that portion of the artery first which is most
remote from the heart, taking care to select a
space of the arterial trunk in which no branches
are given off; therefore, long before the second
ligature can by possibility be applied, a considera-
ble influx of obstructed blood must have taken
place; the artery must be distended near the
hgature to the full extent of its elasticity, forming
a sort of blind pouch. Now, I am of opinion
that, in blood stagnated in the vessel for ever so
short a time, there is a tendency for the free air
to separate itself, and which, in this instance,
would retrograde, and instantly join the current,
leaving within the obstructed vessel between the
ligatures an incalculable proportion of the fibrin-
ous part of the blood, disposed for coagulation in

68
the ratio in which the gaseous element had sepa-
rated from it. Mr. Ancell, in his admirable Lec-
tures on the Blood, published in the Lancet, has
observed as follows : " Every attempt to explain
the phenomenon of the coagulation of the blood
on chemical or mechanical principles has signally
failed ;" and he goes on to say, that the numerous
experiments and the strenuous efforts which have
been made for the purpose prove it to be impos-
sible. Much as I agree with this gentleman^s
views upon the phenomena of the blood generally,
I am at issue with him on this point ; because I
believe the ultimate particles of the circulating
blood are mechanically kept apart by the diffusion
of air, and to which the fluidity of the blood is
mainly owing.

In Part I of the " Register," I have demonstrated
by experiments, that if the trunk of the blood-
vessels of any extremity of a living animal be in-
stantaneously compressed — the spermatic cord,
for instance, thereby isolating the testis, and de-
taching it from the animal without opening a com-
munication between its vessels and the external

69
atmosphere — the eiith'e blood of the organ will
be found in 2^ fluid state at the expiration of seve-
ral hours fi'om the period of the operation ; but I
beg the reader's especial notice of the next point
of consideration, which is, that upon puncturing
the distended trunks, veins as well as arteries, the
blood will be seen to commence coagulation in the
course of a few minutes after it has escaped in a
liquid state.

What was the agent which prevented its coagu-
lation within these dead vessels ? I answ er, it w as
the retention of the hloocTs gas, which is co-existent
with healthy blood : allow it to escape, and coagu-
lation quickly follows.

The indefatigable Magendie, in the course of
his diversified experiments upon the bloodvessels
of living animals, has unwittingly contributed in-
controvertible evidence of the truth of my new
doctrine ; viz. the circulation of the blood involv-
ing the necessity of the presence of a gaseous
volume. I shall quote his own words^ which will
shew, at the same time, that the great experimenter
was bewildered at what lie beheld. Vide Magen-

70
die's memorable lectures on the blood, published
in the Lancet in 1838-9. Lecture the ninth.
Lancet, No. 794, November 1838, page 282, the
Professor was experimenting upon the compara-
tive/ore^ of the femoral and carotid arteries, and
observes to his audience as foUovs^s : —

^^ I have applied tv^o ligatures to the carotid ;
one is intended to prevent haemorrhage by the
upper end ; the other, to fix the lower end of the
artery to the tube introduced into its cavity for
the purpose of transmitting the blood to the body
of the syringe. Every thing is now arranged.
You see that the blood pushes the piston up of
itself, and enters the instrument. The syringe is
half full : I now drive its contents backwards into
the artery. I have now refilled the syringe, by
simply allowing the force of progression of the
blood to drive the piston back."

As my peculiar bloodvessel experiments already
published had all been performed at that time, the
following comments of Magendie, on turning over
to the next page of the Lancet, arrested my at-
tention, and have ever since held possession of my

71
mind in no ordinary degree. Vide page 284, he
says — "One of the most curious phenomena we
have just observed is, that the blood extracted
from the arterial system remained unchanged in
the body of the syringe during several minutes.
How shall we account for its not having coagu-
lated from the contact of the metallic syringe ?
There was a circumstance which, by its physical
influence, probably aided the blood in retaining its
fluidity. In order to give the experiment a greater
degree of precision, I took the precaution of allow-
ing the liquid contained in the instrument to com-
municate freely with that in the artery, so that the
impulsion of the heart, the movements of respira-
tion, &c. acted with their full force on the contents
of the syringe. The latter were, therefore, kept in
constant agitation by all the causes of movement
that act on the circulation, and were placed in a
very different condition from what they would
have been had they been exposed to the open air,
and kept motionless in a vase. The proof that
the influence of the contraction of the left ventri-
cle was as distinctly felt in the instrument as in

72
the artery itself is, that, as you plainly saw, the
piston gradually rose of its own accord, as it were,
until the body of the syringe was completely filled.
It is very possible that constant agitation prevented
the liquid from becoming solid."

My version, on the contrary, is, that the blood
retained its fluidity when extravasated into the sy-
ringe because it had not parted with that essential
constituent, li^free air.

That such an element traverses the entire
bloodvessel tissues of every warm-blooded animal
in nature I shall be enabled to prove by a variety
of incontestable facts ; not confined to the trunk,
but pervading the entire capillary system.

I am not prepared to speak chemically of what
this gas is composed ; but I believe it is derived
from the atmosphere, and distributed to the re-
motest parts of the body, mingled with the liquor
sanguinis ; and in all trunks of arteries, large and
small, which I have suddenly imprisoned, red cor-
puscles have been present.

73

EXPERIMENT VI.

I felt great desire to dissect a plethoric hearty
horse, whose death had been sudden, without the
loss of blood or any of the blood's gas. A well-
bred carriage horse, ten years old, in blooming
condition, but incurable from partial paralysis of
the loins, was condemned. A single blow of the
poleaxe was so ably directed that hfe w^as extin-
guished instantaneously, as he fell with all his legs
in a flexed position, and did not survive the blow
long enough to extend them. It happened, that
not an ounce of blood escaped from the skull. He
was immediately placed on his back, and the ab-
domen skinned and opened as quickly as possible,
and the bowels exposed to view from sternum to
pubis, taking care to avoid bloodvessels. The
groin of the near thigh was next skinned, and by
which time the horse had been dead many minutes ;
a knife was immediately plunged into the crural
artery and vein at their origin. The flow of blood
was so copious, and the current so strong, that it

G

74
formed a high fountain^ and from this single orifice
twenty-one quarts were quickly abstracted, and
collected in pails, after which the blood continued
trickling down the pelvis, from the same orifice,
into the abdomen, where about twenty more mea-
sured quarts were collected ; thus, from a single
orifice, and that remote from the heart, nearly all
the blood in the system was abstracted.

It was extremely interesting to observe, that
while it was flowing in a clear thin stream from
the artery, the blood had already coagulated into
a solid mass in the first pail which received it.

Here is an instance in which the whole volume
of pure healthy blood preserved its fluidity for a
considerable period after death, simply owing to
the vascular apparatus having remained entire at
every part, and retaining thereby the free air in
conjunction with the blood. From the moment
a breach is effected and a communication is
opened with the external air, coagulation is seen
to commence.

I now appeal to those of my readers who may
have had the most experience in post-mortem ex-

75
aminations of horses. Had I allowed the carcass
of this dead horse to have remained untouched for
twelve hours before I proceeded to collect and
measure his blood, could I, by the greatest labour
and art, have procured half the quantity, reckon-
ing solid as well as fluid ? In our public hospitals,
has not great surprise always been expressed at
the small quantity of blood found in human bodies
on dissection the next day after the sudden death
of those in full health ?

Hunter himself has confessed in print his ina-
bility to account for the paucity.

In post-mortem examinations generally, both
of man and brute, if conducted the next day after
dissolution, the arterial trunks are found empty,
whilst the right side of the heart and venous trunks
invariably contain all the blood of the system,
even though the animal may have died in a ple-
thoric state.

What has become of one moiety of the blood
which the vessels of the animal may be supposed
to have contained at the moment of his decease ?
Will the absence of one-half be accounted for by

76
the reduction of its temperature from 98 degrees
to the temperature of the day, say 50 degrees ?
No : — but as the circulation flags, the air and the
hquor sanguinis disunite, the gas distends the ar-
teries, whilst the liquor sanguinis stagnates and
congeals in the veins.

The greatest physiological error which has been
committed since the days of Harvey is the theory
that the caliber of the arteries and veins of a
healthy man are maintained by the circulation of
sheer blood : the actual fact is, that it is a joint
gaseous and sanguineous circulation.

EXPERIMENT VII.

A young vigorous horse, incurably lame, was
subjected to my peculiar carotid operation, as de-
tailed in Experiment I. The carotid artery was
taken up by hgature on one side, and upon the
following day the carotid of the other side was
taken up in a similar manner, and, strange to say,
the vital functions appeared to be but little dis-
turbed by this outrage. The patient was well

77
nursed and gruelled and attended to for two or
three days, a healthy suppuration appeared from
the wound, and I sincerely believe he would have
recovered ; but, upon the third day, I also took up
by hgature one of his jugular veins ; by this, in
conjunction with the deprivation of his carotids,
his respiration became disturbed and stertorous.
Upon the following morning, I was astonished to
find that he had rallied : no hemorrhage whatever
had occurred from either of the wounds — his
breathing, though somewhat qviick, was silent,
and not very laborious — his secretions and excre-
tions appeared to be natural. As it was decided
that the horse should be destroyed on this, the
fifth day, it occurred to me that, for the ends of
science, it was expedient that he should lose the
other jugular ; and, accordingly, I tied it also in
the early part of the morning. The breathing
became laborious immediately, with an occasional
cough ; perspiration ensued from irritation, and
the horse plunged considerably, but no haemor-
rhage occurred — not a drop. Pulse at the heart
above 100.

78

I should here observe, that casting for the ope-
rations was avoided in each instance, the patient
having been suspended the whole time in slings,
and otherwise supported at all sides by a large
wooden framework purposely contrived. I e^^-
pected death would quickly ensue ; but, on the
contrary, in the course of three or four hours,
he became more calm, plunged less frequently,
breathing hurried, though not quite so laborious ;
but the pulse at the heart 120. At this stage I
invited some friends, who saw him alive minus
all the four great vascular trunks.

Twelve o'clock at night came. I was sorry to
find him yet alive, all his symptoms remaining
about the same, except more frequent paroxysms
of coughing: pulse could not be counted. At
about half past twelve, in a more violent fit of
coughing than heretofore, one of the carotids gave
way with profuse haemorrhage, and he was dead
in a few minutes.

I offer no comments upon this experiment with
reference to my theory, but have introduced it
merely as the record of a fact never before demon-

79
strated, so far as I have heard or read ; viz. the
possibiUty of so large an annual as a horse surviv-
ing for nearly twenty-four hours after the depriva-
tion of both carotid arteries and both jugular veins.

^'^ ' ' EXPERIMENT VIII

Will be found interesting, as shewing the extra-
ordinary effect of cold or rigor upon the arterial
circulation in the extremities. A saddle-horse,
condemned for unsound wind, but not old, was
thrown for the purpose of taking up the meta-
carpal artery of each fore leg. This vessel is in-
viting for experiment, the tnmk being single and
of a very large caliber just before it bifurcates to
form the pastern arteries.

It happened that this horse stood without any
cloth or covering for nearly an hour before he was
thrown, on a cold day, and in rather a strong cur-
rent of wind (not, however, by design). It was ob-
served while the casting-tackle was being adjusted,
that he shivered; but I had forgotten this cir-
cumstance, or rather had not res^arded it, till I had

80
far advanced in the operation, and almost bared
the artery ; when my attention was arrested by
finding that the wound through the integuments
was bloodless^ and the foot and leg below the knee
of icy coldness. The trunk of the artery was im-
mediately exposed fully to view ; but it was with-
out pulsation or motion, either to the sight or
touch. I imagined at the moment that a fatal
accident had happened. It was soon apparent,
however, that he was not injured by the casting,
the pulse at the heart and jaw being vigorous, and
his respiration tolerably steady. As quickly as
possible he was turned upon the other side, and
the metacarpal artery of the opposite leg imme-
diately exposed to view. No such phenomenon
presented itself here : a bounding pulse could both
be seen and felt : the leg was warm, and the cu-
taneous wound bled about as usual.

But to return to the cold, bloodless leg : — In
the interval the wound had been left without a
bandage. The patient by this time had struggled
two or three times ; his body slightly perspired,
and I need scarcely add, that the skin-wound was

81

found bleeding, and the pulsation of the denuded
artery could be felt as distinctly as in the other,
the leg having become warm as its fellow.

I could not refrain from recording this chance
case, because I conceive that it makes well for the
advocates of cold affusions in very many cases of
local inflammation, both of man and brute. The
ice-boot for the leg and foot of the horse deserves
to be more in requisition ; and I trust it will not
be deemed a digression, because, at the least, it
furnishes negative evidence of a temporary suspen-
sion of the arterial circulation, solely the result of
the sensation of cold. London veterinarians are
familiar with something analogous to this, in which
an interruption occiu's to the circulation within
the venous system.

A plethoric young horse, fresh from the country,
say four years old, is observed at exercise in the
morning with a glossy skin, all gaiety, and scarcely
to be held in his freaks : towards the same after-
noon or evening, he is found in his stall, not feed-
ing like his companions, but standing back from

H

82
the rack to the extremity of his halter, hanging
down his head and shivering, with a staring coat,
although in a stable at a high temperature. His
pulse very indistinct, but frequent ; and his breath
hot and feverish ; legs and ears icy cold : in short,
he is suddenly seized with acute bronchitis. Now
just at this juncture, and before there has been time
for the second stage of fever to have set in, I have
satisfied myself times and oft that the circulation
of the blood in all the subcutaneous or superficial
veins — the jugular excepted — of this large animal
is completely suspended : the large thigh vein feels
under the finger exactly as flat as a piece of tape ;
the same with the plate vein at the axilla, and
every other venous trunk at the surface. In many
horses which have been so circumstanced and
afterwards perfectly recovered, I have had the
opportunities of reducing this physiological and
pathological point to a certainty, by having made
apertures, by lancet, into the thigh and shoulder-
veins large enough to admit the tip of one's little
finger, without abstracting more than a few drops

83
of black blood; whereas each of these venous
trunks, in health, will readily yield from a gallon
to six quarts at a single bleeding.

A most striking contrast to this collapse of the
superficial veins may be witnessed upon a sunny
day in summer with every successful English race-
horse.

Let us suppose a Derby winner being led from
his stable leisurely up to the starting-post in his
clothes ; he is then stripped for saddling. His
high breeding and high training in conjunction
have rendered his skin as fine and thin as a satin
vesture ; the development of his prominent mus-
cles is distinctly visible through it. By the time
his jockey has quietly mounted and walked him
forty or fifty yards, his skin universally presents
the most beautiful network imaginable of superfi-
cial veins, from his ears to his heels, starting, as it
were, from evident distention : the thigh veins are
especially conspicuous. There is all this demon-
stration of health and extreme vigour, even before
he has had a canter.

These well known facts are introduced for the

84
purpose of demonstrating the actual condition of
the venous system under varying circumstances,
when, from opposite causes, the equilibrium of
the circulation may have been disturbed, as, either
from the rigor of fever, or the gentle excitement of
the nervous system in walking through the public
throng to the starting-post, as the case may hap-
pen to be ; shewing that there exists an ever vary-
ing degree of distention of the vascular trunks, more
particularly of the superficial circulatory apparatus.

In perusing standard physiological works of a
comprehensive scale, I have often wondered, and
felt disappointment, that their authors have not
commented more largely upon this fluctuation as
regards the physical distention or collapse of the
superficial venous trunks. Veterinary patholo-
gical writers have the more especially surprised
me in this respect by their silence. I have long
ago satisfied myself that the venous system is full
to plethora, or comparatively empty, just in pro-
portion as it sympathizes or is influenced by the
nerves and exhalents of the skin.

The florid arterialized blood drawn from the

85
jugular vein of a horse while labouring under the
acute stage of general inflammatory fever, — this
is an abnormal state of the blood, although re-
peatedly noticed in passing, which has never yet
been duly philosophized upon.

In prosecuting these inquiries into the laws of
the circulatory system, phenomena of a startling
character sometimes result from our experimental
operations.

When Sir Astley Cooper, also the eminent
anatomist Mr. Erasmus Wilson, and others, passed
a ligature round the posterior aorta of a living dog,
very near to the heart, each of their patients not
only survived the operation, but lived for a year
and upwards ; and, strange to say, the system did
not appear to have sustained any desperate shock.

Now we have the fact before us, that, notwith-
standing this outrageous and sudden obstruction
of the grand viaduct, nature's resources were such,
that the circulation was carried on, even to the
hind feet and tip of the tail. According to the
rationale of the day, it was accomplished by anas-
tomoses of vessels ; although, by the strictest ana-

86
tomical references, no other passage could be
found than those insignificant channels, the inter-
costal arteries.

According to the principles of the established
theory of the circulation of the blood, the perfect
cures of these two mutilated dogs are utterly inex-
plicable ; but the moment we recognize a current
of steam within the aorta, the accommodating
theory of communication by anastomoses becomes
more reconcileable, and readily may we imagine its
speedy diffusion throughout the system by retro-
grade motion.

That a retrograde movement of the arterial
fluid as one of the consequences of a breach in
the vessel does occasionally occur, we have the
authority of Mr. Wardrop. In his great work on
Aneurism, page 56, he says — " Independent of a
knowledge of the fact, that hemorrhage takes place
from the orifice beyond the ligature, whether ap-
plied on the cardiac or distal side of an aneurism,'
the circumstance illustrates the change produced
in the circulation of the blood, when an arterial
trunk is obstructed, and points out that it assumes

87
a retrograde motion in the vessel beyond the liga-
ture. This retrograde course of the blood, in the
portion of the artery between a Hgature and the
capillary arterial branches which anastomose with
its ramifications, is a curious pathological fact ; the
branches of the obstructed vessel thus acquiring a
power to transmit the blood in a direction oppo-
site to its natural course."

I have endeavoured to prove, that arterial blood
secured in its transit within the living vessel is
not identical with that which is abstracted in a
stream by puncture from a lancet ; that the former
is light, airy, and volatile ; while the latter, when
collected in a basin, is a thick ponderous fluid.
The former appears to contain only a fractional
proportion of the solid materials of the latter, and
is transmitted with electrical velocity throughout
the arterial apparatus.

Even in the calm unexcited state of the animal
the current seems to be rapid, while no resistance
is offered beyond the slight degree of physical im-
pediment from the attraction of the walls of the
vascular tubes through which it passes.

88

We know that, when an artery has been ob-
structed by ligature for the cure of aneurism, a
plug of solid coagulable lymph is formed in the ca-
vity of the artery above and below the ligature,
and the canal, after a time, becomes impervious
from that part to the anastomosing branches. I
believe that in this example of the obstructed cur-
rent, and in every Hke case, the sanguineous air
and the liquor sanguinis are instantly disunited
owing to the barrier : the gas retrogrades and joins
the current by the nearest anastomosing branches,
and a deposit of fibrin or coagulable lymph within
the obstructed vessel is the result ; and layer upon
layer, like laminae, are contributed by every sub-
sequent contraction of the heart, until a plug of
sufficient amount has accumulated.

It is after this manner that I account for John
Hunter and Sir Astley Cooper finding the arterial
blood coagulated and dark-coloured, like that in a
vein, after two or three hours' confinement in the
carotid between two ligatures.- The first ligature
tied was the farthest from the heart; and when
they had allowed the blood to distend the vessel

89
the utmost extent of its capacity, they tied the
other, leaving a space between the Hgatures of
two inches.

For the sake of argument, let it for a moment
be admitted that I am right in my views ; that
the arterial stream is aerial, but impregnated with
sanguineous fluid : as such, the current is abruptly
stopped by their first ligature, because there is no
anastomosing branch at that part of the carotid ;
then, of necessity, the stream retrogrades ; but
mark, with this important difference in its quality, —
the molecules of the blood, which were before
vddely diffused in air, have, by the mechanical
obstruction, been brought within the sphere of
attractive influence ; the volatile part, being libe-
rated, retrogades, and joins the general current
before the application of the second hgature, while
the more substantial constituents remain impri-
soned in the vessel.

That pure atmospheric air, or a modification
of it, in large volume finds a ready entrance into
the left side of the heart there can exist no doubt ;
and I am of "opinion that the left heart is essen-

I

90
tially a gasometer , that every pulsation of the
aorta brings the air we breathe into immediate
contact with the ultimate internal tissues of our
body, and which undergo a fresh irrigation almost
every moment of our existence by a gaseous fluid
impregnated with hquor sanguinis. Morbid ana-
tomy also affords conclusive evidence that the
channel 'by ^hich the air inspired by the trachea
and transmitted throughout the system by the ar-
terial ramifications is much less complicated than
the theories of respiration and circulation at pre-
sent in vogue would represent.

I will relate a case of hydrothorax in a horse,
an extreme one, certainly, but common-place to
every man in large practice. There is a stage in
the progress of this complaint in which an able
practitioner might safely predict, almost to an
hour, the time at which life would be extinct, al-
though his patient would be standing on his legs,
and perhaps feeding, I may say, with avidity. In
this individual case I performed the operation of
paracentesis ; not, however, simply by puncture
and evacuation through a canula, but by an exten-

91
sive incision with a scalpel the width of the hand,
between the 7th and 8th ribs, first upon one side.
The enormous quantity of transparent serous fluid
collected was nearly two large horse-pails. A few
hours after, the other side underwent a similar
operation, and another four-gallon horse-pail of
fluid was collected. This was a condemned horse
in the infirmary ; but, in two or three days after,
his respiration was perfectly tranquil, his appetite
keen, and countenance cheerful. The owner
claimed him, and he was removed to his own sta-
ble, a few hundred yards off, and in a fortnight
after he taunted me by saying the patient was in
every way convalescent, that he breathed and fed
as well as his others. I only replied, he will surely
die, because the chest will be refilled with water.
In a few days afterwards he fell in the act of
feeding, and died instantly.

In the post-mortem examination, both thoracic
cavities were found enormously distended with
fluid ; and I might almost assert that the lungs
could not be found ; the owner remarking, it was
needless to search, as '' they were dissolved in the

92
water." Now, the contracted state of each lung
almost defies description : their pleural envelope
was entire ; but, upon cutting through it, the
parenchymatous substance was entirely absorbed,
and there appeared literally nought left but the
bronchi and their ramifications.

The atrophy of these lungs appeared to be simply
the result of the mechanical pressure of the water,
absorption having taken place of the soft and deli-
cate organization, while the harder and less-organ-
ized air-channels must have remained tolerably
pervious, or how could life have been so long sus-
tained. The heat of this horse's blood from the
jugular vein was tested immediately before the
tapping operation, and found by the thermometer
to be 98^

We are informed by the greatest authorities,
that the heat of the human blood in the last stage
of phthisis not only maintains the healthy stand-
ard, but often somewhat exceeds it.

It therefore appears that, although three-fourths
of the lungs of man or beast nlay be annihilated,
a very considerable quantity of the atmospheric

93
air, or its essence, finds admission into the left
side of the heart several times in a minute.

Upon referring to those highly interesting ex-
periments of Sir Benjamin Brodie many years
back, of artificial respiration on decapitated ani-
mals, we shall find pretty conclusive evidence that
the great one thing needful to animal life, viz. re-
spiration, paramount as the function is, the appa-
ratus and the working of it must be as simple as
it is general throughout animated nature.

In Sir Benjamin's second experiment, the arti-
fical breathing was continued upon a dog for two
hours and a half, and after one hour and thirty
minutes from the moment the animal lost its head,
the pulse had risen to 84 in a minute.

Here we have ocular demonstration, that the
fluidity of the whole of the blood in the system
was maintained after the dog had been literally
dead for upwards of an hour and a half, by the
continued physical operation of syringing into the
left side of his heart the breath of life.

To suppose that in every round of the circula-
tion through the lungs of this dead dog, an in-

94
terchange of gases or any energetic movements
occmTed within the air-cells^ would be absm*d.

I have before alluded to the varied states of
distention or collapse of the superficial venous
trunks under peculiar circumstances, both of
health and disease.

This fluctuation as to the degree of physical
distention by the amount of contents of the vessel
is certainly more apparent to our senses in the
venous system, yet I think it also obtains in the
arterial system.

Cold locally applied in a current upon the ex-
tremity of a limb will operate so decidedly as a
sedative or nervous shock upon the muscular tunic
of the principal arterial trunk as to render it tem-
porarily impervious, and, as a necessary sequence,
passive as to pulsatory action. I flatter myself
that Experiment VIII has proved thus much to
demonstration : although I admit that the sohtary
case referred to belongs to the chapter of acci-
dents, yet to my mind it is conclusive.

In contemplating the influence of varied tem-
perature upon the tissues of om' bodies, it awakens

95
to my recollection a passage I have lately read
in the luminous work of Liebig, wherein this
philosopher asserts, that the finger cannot be ap-
plied to the head without effecting a combus-
tion of nmscular tissue. Taking this as a truism,
how intense must be the fire created within the
muscular fabric of our successful English race-
horse while winning the great Derby race over
Epsom ! In each of these severe contests there is
always a portion of the race which is known to
sportsmen as the struggle or test to the winning
horse. He may achieve the mastery in the early
part of the race, in the middle, or within a short
distance of the winning post; but be that as it
may, the exciting and interesting portion of the
ground is Hterally covered at the Jiy'mg rate of a
mile per minute.

This locomotive power, almost incredible, is the
sole result of successive contractions of muscular
fibre. What a problem for Liebig himself ! Who
else can estimate the amount of caloric generated ?
By what physical means is it suppressed or neu-
tralized ? What is the degree of rarefaction of the

96
gases of the contained blood ? What are the
safety valves which preserve the left side of the
heart from rupture ? Altogether it is an enigma
past finding out. Whence the source of that
plethora or distention of both the arterial and ve-
nous systems which we are sure must exist almost
to rupture at the crisis just prior to the entire
surface of the body being suffused in sensible per-
spiration ? Will a heightened temperature of the
blood account for the distended state of its vessels ?

I am now about to refer to experiments by
which the abnormal contents oi veins are explored ;
but as my researches by dissections of living ani-
mals, as to the contents of venous trunks in transit
and in their normal condition, have been nume-
rous and comphcated, they must necessarily wait
their turn in these records.

The plethoric state of a venous trunk in the
vicinity of a diseased part, or rather contiguous to
a sensitive organ which may be suffering severely
from a mechanical injury, as an abnormal condi-
tion, is highly interesting for exploration by my
new proceedure of experimenting.

97

An illustration of distended vein resulting
from disease may be here introduced. I was
called to a horse of my own at straw yard a few
miles off, the farming man stating that the ani-
mal's eye was put out either from a bite or kick ;
and ghastly indeed was the appearance ; but the
eye was not lost. Tears flowed copiously, the
lids were much tumefied and inverted, the eye-
ball retracted within the socket, the membrana
nictitans projected nearly over it, and the inflam-
mation of the conjunctiva was intense. The
whole cause was simply a piece of oat-chafF, which
had adhered to the transparent cornea, but so
tenaciously, that it had actually impacted itself
into the substance, without, however, ulcerating
through it. The angular vein under the eye was
enormously distended, as we always find it in such
cases of unrelieved injury : as he was a thin-
skinned blood horse, it was especially prominent
in this instance.

To commence my treatment by extracting the
foreign body from this irritable and sensitive organ,
naturally enough, first suggested itself : but no ; I

K

98
felt that there was a duty which I owed to science
that was paramount to that of sympathy in this
instance.

The horse was therefore immediately cast, his
head secured, and the following

FIRST VENOUS EXPERIMENT.

Was performed upon the distended angular vein.
I need not remind my brother practitioners that
the throbbing and excitement of the adjacent ves-
sels was so great, that had this vein been then
punctured with a lancet the blood would have
started out copiously in jets, and most assuredly
would have appeared of a bright vermilion hue,
resembhng arterial blood, as every surgeon knows.
A longitudinal incision was carefully made
through the integuments, in the direction of the
vein, about an inch and a half in length, and for-
tunately the distended vessel was denuded with
the perfect integrity of its coats. It now only re-
mained for my clasped instrument to be passed
under it, as before described and practised upon

99
arteries (carotid and others), l)y which it will be
remembered, an inch or more of the denuded ves-
sel is instantaneously grasped and imprisoned, by
two ligatures at the required distance from each
other at the same instant of time : this being per-
fectly a simultaneous action, the contents of the
vessel are fairly caught in their transit.

In this instance, the imprisoned vein was imme-
diately removed — encased in the apparatus —
placed at rest in a temperature of about 60^ and
when examined exactly at the expiration of three
hours, by puncturing its coats, a quantity of red
blood escaped j^erfecily Jluid, and left the internal
coat of the xeva free from stain or coagulable de-
posit. In the course of a few minutes after its
escape it coagulated, with an excess of serum.

I should have stated, that no more time was
lost in removing the piece of chaff from the suf-
ferer's eye ; and I have the satisfaction to add,
that, after the lapse of two or three months, vision
was perfectly restored, and almost without blemish
of the cornea : therefore, an engorged vein was

100
explored by an experimental operation, without
opposition to the cure.

The above operation was performed upon the
vein by the same apparatus which I had been in the
habit of using for taking up the submaxillary and
other small arteries ; but I have since found that,
for taking up venous trunks in their normal con-
dition, such as the jugular, when the system is
calm, in health, and unexcited, considerable mo-
dification of the instrument is required (the ven-
ous current being certainly very slow), but the
details of this will be furnished at a future and not
very remote period, with accurate descriptions of
the requisite instrument.

Comptoii add Kitcliie, I'rmteis, Middle Stiet-t, Clotli Fair.

PAUT III,

A NEW AND STRIKING FACT,

DEMONSTRATIVE OF A (pROBABLE)

UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE

PERVADING THE

HUMAN ORGANISATION AND ALL ANIMAL LIFE,

NOT HITHERTO EXPOUNDED BY

COJfPARATIVE ANATOMISTS AND TEACHERS OF HUMAN
PHYSIOLOGY.

ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL READER.

The important fact alluded to in the title-page
of this the third part of my labours is the disco-
very of a free channel of communication for the
transmission of ordinary atmospheric air directly
into the left cavities of the heart, as received by
the nostrils and windpipe, and transmitted through
the lungs, w^holly independent of the vascular pul-
monary circulation.

Horse Infirmary, 311, Regent Street,
London, April 1847.

105

ON THE BLOOD.

PART .III.

EXPERIMENT IX.

A VIGOROUS young horse having opened his
knee-joint very extensively by a fall, was con-
demned by his owner to be destroyed, quickly
after the accident ; but in the interval, while his
case was under consideration, the animal was well
suspended in slings ; his position therefore was very
favourable and inviting for experiment. A lon-
gitudinal incision of about two inches in length
was made in front of the trachea a hand's-breadth
below its upper extremity ; a long-necked phial
containing sixteen ounces of quicksilver being in
readiness, the divided rings of the windpipe easily
admitted the neck of the bottle, and eight ounces

106
of the quicksilver were instantly allowed to descend
into the trachea and bronchi. The bottle being
withdrawn, the tracheal opening closed from the
elasticity of its rings, and two minutes were
allowed to elapse to watch results. No cough
whatever ensued, and very little disturbance in the
system was perceptible. The phial was then re-in-
troduced, and the remaining eight ounces, making
a pound of crude mercury, entered the windpipe,
without a particle returning or falling by the way.
All restraints were immediately removed from the
animal, such as the slings, hobbles, &c., except the
confinement of his head, which, it must be remem-
bered, was firmly secured with double halters, and
much elevated from the commencement of the
experiment. No cough was yet heard ; but the re-
spiration became greatly accelerated, with excite-
ment and restlessness, and much pawing, attended
with partial sweating, the animal remaining firmly
on his legs for five minutes, when he made a vio-
lent plunge all fours, and alighting on his croup
(his head remaining secured and elevated), con-
tinued in a sitting posture, apparently comatose.

107
for four minutes ; lie then suddenly arose, stood
firmly on his legs, but with his breathing extremely
laborious and stertorous. Eleven minutes had now
elapsed from the first introduction of the foreign
body into the channels of the respiratory organs.
All symptoms were attentively watched for four
minutes longer, the horse continuing on his legs,
and gradually becoming comparatively calm : in
short, it was the opinion of the bystanders that
he would have survived the shock of the experi-
ment ; but he was immediatelv shot.

Dissection very shortly after Death,

To prevent the escape of a particle of the
quicksilver from the aperture of the windpipe
during the skinning of the carcass, the head was
left in the same elevated position as during life.
The contents of the thorax were well exposed to
view in sitn, by freely sawing of the ribs, and the
heart and lungs in conjunction were most carefully
removed for the exploration of their contents in
the minutest manner. These were immediately

108
examined. The windpipe was found empty to
within three inches of its bifurcation in the lungs,
the canal at this part being about half full of a
thick white froth, which, upon the point of the
scalpel, was evidently a mixture of mucus and
large globules of quicksilver. As the large divi-
sions of the bronchi were opened, they were found
fiill of the same froth ; but as they were minutely
followed into the substance of the lungs the glo-
bules of mercury became less and less, though in
every portion of the tissue they were perceptible
to the naked eye.

Considering that this animal died without the
escape of more than an ounce of blood from the
aperture in the skull where the shot entered, the
engorgement of the lungs was not so great as I
expected ; but both sides of the heart contained
blood, and all the vital organs proved perfectly
sound.

My design in instituting this and other subse-
quent experiments was that of tracing the atmo-

109
sphere in its 7'oute, throughout the animal organism,
commencing with its inhalation at the nostril.

The breath of life rushes through the trachea
of a new-born infant with the force of a torrent
from the mountain top : it does not wait in the
cells of the lungs to be decomposed, as taught by
the schools, but rapidly pursues its course, unal-
tered, into the left cavities of the heart direct, and
from thence to the remotest parts of the organized
system ; so that each living atom of the interior
of a sound man's frame undergoes irrigation with
commion atmospheric air at least seventy times in
every minute of his healthy existence through the
medium of the arterial vascular apparatus, con-
sisting of open elastic tubes universally diffused,
and never continuing collapsed, either in life or
death ; a tube so unique in its construction and
material, that it retains the property of preserving
itself open when boiled.

But to continue with my dissection : I do not
hesitate to avow, that this experiment was insti-

M

110
tilted expressly with the expectation — ay, even
with the hope — that I should find running mercury
zmthin the left ventricle of the heart, I am well
aware how this confession may prejudice my report
in the minds of many readers ; but then, on the
other hand, I am also aware that those inquiring
experimentalists who will tax themselves with the
trouble of following me (and those of my own pro-
fession assuredly will), must also find the fact I
am about to describe so obvious, ^^ that those who
run may read ;" and therefore, being a thing rea-
dily demonstrable upon all fitting occasions, there
is no objection to a candid statement in every
particular.

Perhaps the liberality of the present age may
tolerate these heretical opinions as they emanate
from an old pioneer in pathological pursuits, and
one who has habitually seized upon all opportu-
nities through his life as they have arisen for ex-
perimenting in physiological research. Although
presenting himself in such direct' opposition to re-
ceived opinions, the author confidently expects

Ill

some lenity even from his opponents, because he
is not trifling with his readers either by hypothesis
or theory, but plainly unfolding to pubUc view
numerous important facts, which he has seen with
his own eyes, and such as have not lain near
enough the surface to be casually stumbled against.

Exploration of the Contents of the left Side of the
Heart,

Upon laying open the left ventricle from top to
bottom, about four ounces of blood, of a florid
scarlet colour, were found slightly adhering to the
walls, rather inspissated or grumous, but not coa-
gulated or presenting a distinct uniform clot. After
exposure to the air a very few minutes, a slight
film on its surface was quite evident to the naked
eye, of a dirty white colour, and apparently
metallic.

On opening the left auricle, about an ounce of
blood was found rather more fluid ; but it pre-

112
sented the same metallic film on its surface. The
blood from the auricle and ventricle has since been
analysed by an eminent chemist, and pronounced
to be strongly impregnated with crude mercury.

It must, I imagine, be conceded, that structures
which could be permeated by particles of a me-
tallic body would be most readily penetrated by
unmixed or pure atmospheric air. That the ordi-
nary air of the atmosphere did accompany these
particles of the quicksilver throughout the bron-
chial tubes to the utmost limits of their ramifica-
tions in the horse experimented upon, I take it
must also be admitted : then it is obvious, that one
of the most important functions of the left heart
must be that of a gasometer pump to the entire
organized system : it may also have other func-
tions to perform equally important.

Comparative anatomy and comparative physio-
logy in conjunction, and perhaps I may add vege-
table physiology, most abundantly prove that the

113
universal vivifying principle of aeration, instead of
depending for its efficiency upon extreme compli-
cation of structure, conjointly v^ith a concatena-
tion of circumstances for its operation, as taught by
the schools, such as the endosmose and exmosmose
of gases, is a magnificent example of the Creator
administering to his creatures the first gi'eat
essential or supporter of animal life in the most
unsparing, simplest, and direct form. That the
function of expiration, and the processes connected
therewith, as constituting the grand emuncionj of
the circulatory system, is a highly complicated
affair, I feel thoroughly assured ; and to this de-
partment of the animal economy it will hereafter be
found that most of the laborious and valuable ex-
periments of physiologists really apply. But with
regard to inspiration, I boldly make my stand, by
asserting that all connected with it is the simplest
of Nature's operations; that the same identical par-
ticles of common air which in the one moment we
inhale by the nostrils are distributed by the next
pulsation of the heart to the interior of our toes ;

114
that the common element ever surrounding us from
our entrance in the world to our final exit is thus
universally diffused throughout the minutest tex-
tures of our system, in conjunction with some of
the essential ingredients of the blood.

Comments upon the Analysis of the Blood,

Anatomists, physiologists, and, above all, our
philosophic modern chemists, especially the conti-
nental inquirers, have of late ardently exerted
themselves in investigating the component parts,
with their relative proportions, in the vital fluid.
Nothing, I believe, can be conceived more minute
than the details which they hand to us for our en-
lightenment upon the important subject of the
composition of the blood. Partly from the pecu-
liar doctrines upon which I am undertaking to
write, but more especially from the circumstance
of being actuated in my description solely by the
observance of certain facts which cannot by pos-
sibility have ever met the eye of 'any others than

115
the very few who may have instituted similar ex-
periments (if any there are), I feel that I am about
to be betrayed into expressions which, I hope and
trust, will not be construed by any of my readers
as unbecoming or disrespectful towards the parties
who may be named. I disclaim any such in-
tention ; for no man breathing entertains a
higher veneration than I do for those luminaries
who have gained for themselves distinguished
honours by their laborious and elaborate researches
into the mysteries of human physiology.

Obscure a labourer as I am in the subordinate
field of science, viz. animal physiologtj, I am in the
possession of a gathering of facts which warrants
me in predicting that the illustrious Baron Liebig
himself, robed in his well-earned laurels, is
doomed to do this section of his work over again.
By the perusal of several recent publications on
animal chemistry, British and foreign, I find
that they commence their analyses, particularly as
to the distinction between arterial and venous
blood, with the utmost composure and confi-

116
dence, contenting themselves by merely abstract-
ing the blood from the jugular vein of an ox,
horse, man, or any large animal, and collecting it
in several vessels, as in common phlebotomy. A
superficial artery is then opened with a lancet — the
temporal, or perhaps some larger vessel — a carotid
may be laid bare, and a corresponding quantity of
blood is then collected in the open air, and in
open receivers, as in common blood-letting. A most
searching and protracted examination of the ab-
stracted blood then takes place ; all the lights of
modern science are brought to bear in effecting
its analyzation, and I have the most profound
faith in their efficiency in this art ; but that sup-
poses they have commenced upon a right basis,
viz., by having secured all the ingredients of the
blood. Here, however, is the rock upon which
they have foundered ; they have neglected to do so.
Owing to their unguarded manner of collecting the
blood, one of its chief ingredients, the blood's gas,
has eluded their grasp. Immediately on punc-
turing the neck vein, they carefully collect all they
see flow from the orifice ; but it so happens there

117
is an escape at the same time, which is invisible,
and which becomes lost in the surromiding atmo-
sphere, instead of making its way into their retorts.
I therefore take upon myself to deny the accuracy
of the published analyses of the blood as promul-
gated by the philosophic chemists of the day. A
correct analysis of the circulating blood is only
practicable or possible by collecting it during its
transit, and at the same time effecting a requisite
accumulation in a receiver by means of an appa-
ratus so contrived that the external atmosphere
shall be thoroughly excluded ; and this isolation
must be maintained until the blood is actually
under the manipulations of the analysing chemist.

EXPERIMENT X

Stands here merely as a record, shewing that a
moderate quantity of quicksilver may be introduced
into the circulation by the trachea without a fatal
result, and apparently with no very considerable
disturbance of the system.

118
A blood mare, five years old, being condemned
for acute glanders, an incision, lengthways, of
about two inches, was made in front of the wind-
pipe towards the upper part through the cartila-
ginous rings. At first only two ounces in weight
of quicksilver were allowed to run down the trachea
through the aperture mentioned, and it was ad-
ministered as slowly as possible. The mouth of
the phial was then withdrawn, and the wound
sealed with adhesive plaster. The respiration
became flurried almost immediately ; and in this
instance, after the lapse of five minutes, an irri-
table cough ensued, and which recurred frequently.

The mare remained firmly on her legs, tossed
her head up and down, and pawed occasionally
with her fore foot, evidently slightly irritated, but
not distressed. After ten minutes had passed, two
ounces more of the quicksilver, making a quarter
of a pound, were allowed to fall suddenly into the
trachea. This caused considerable agitation for a
minute or two : the animal plunged rather vio-
lently, but remained firmly on her legs ; the difl[i-

119
culty of breathing increased, and slight perspira-
ration ensued. (This, as also the foregoing expe-
riment, were conducted safely without casting the
animals.) The wound was closed, and no more
quicksilver introduced. When half an hour had
elapsed from the first exhibition of the metal, the
mare appeared to be very little affected from the
outrage she had endured, except the occasional
irritation of a cough.

Six hours after the experiment no symptoms
of uneasiness were discoverable. The mare fed
with avidity. At that period she was shot ; but
no dissection was permitted in this case.

Had the subject been allowed to live, I make
no doubt that, in the course of a few weeks,
chronic disease would have been set up in the
lungs, the result of the invasion of a foreign
body.

120

EXPERIMENT XI

Was in every particular merely a parallel one to
that of Experiment IX, both in the manner of
conducting it as well as the results, except that
it was performed on a glandered horse, whose
lungs proved on dissection to be full of miliary
tubercles. Two or three of these happening to be
much more developed than the rest, I cannot
resist the digression by describing what I con-
ceive to be a pathological fact of the highest
import and interest to the human practitioner.
While tracking the passage of the mercury
throughout the substance of the lungs, my atten-
tion was suddenly arrested by one of the larger
tubercles, where the parenchyma around it was
especially charged or studded with minute specks
of the metal, and which continued visible into the
very substance of the tubercle ; but it abruptly
presented a line of demarcation between the cell
or capsule of the tubercle, thereby proving the in-
terior or contents to be an unorganised substance,

121
not a particle of the quicksilver having pene-
trated into it.

But to return to my subject. That the essential
duty of the aorta is to transmit an aerial current^
and by its ramifications to distribute common
atmospheric air to every atom of the organised
tissue, I have in reserve a host of overwhelming
evidence, and which will be detailed in the course
of narration of many more cases.

The chief phenomena attendant upon those
magnificent experiments of Sir Benj. Brodie's, by
keeping up artificial respiration in animals for an
hour after decapitation, admit of a different ver-
sion from that given by the illustrious experi-
menter. Sir Benjamin tells us the blood con-
tinued to circulate even to the extremities for an
hour after the animal was dead, and that the heart
continued to beat. Then the blood must have re-
mainedjluid. Why did not the blood coagulate in
all this time ? I answer, because of the diffusion of
atmospheric air which he pumped into the lungs

122
by measured proportions, in imitation of natural
respiration.

The most difficult problem in physiology which
remains to be solved in these enlightened days is
the rationale of the coagulation of the blood.
Here John Hunter himself met a barrier that his
genius never surmounted, as his published works
testify. To all inquirers into the phenomena of
animal hfe who have halted to think for them-
selves, there has always been a void, a link of the
chain wanting, in this division of science. Writers
of the greatest research have especially pointed
to the vitality imparted to the blood by its con-
tact with Iwing vessels, and thus reasoned on
its fluidity. The more I reflect on this theory,
the more I am convinced that it is in accordance
and association with the retention of a volatile
constituent of the blood, with which, ere long, we
shall find it our business to become better ac-
quainted.

Part I Y is in preparation.

UNIV. MD. HEALTH SCI. LIBRARY

3 mE7 0003Tb7M 5